A day in the life of... Tom Marchant

01-Jun-08

Tom Marchant set up London luxury travel agency Black Tomato (BT) with friends and co-founders Matt Smith and James Merrett in 2005. Known for its trailblazing style and creative approach to upmarket travel, it has a client list of around 5,000. Christy Wyatt shadows the entrepreneurial director.

7.30am Marchant arrives at his empty office, BT HQ, Shoreditch, to catch up on emails: he admits the three-minute walk from his nearby home is an enviable commute. The open plan office boasts funky music, and decor dedicated to this month's New Zealand theme - Maori woodcarvings and a stuffed Kiwi compliment a kiwi-inspired graffiti mural. Black and white sofas and chairs sit next to a bar offering trendy beer and juice drinks. BT schemes include 'inspiring hours', where staff can visit exhibitions that may provide business ideas.

The agency, which launched in Marchant's bedroom in 2005, moved here from a small Putney office last autumn. While being close to potential City-based clients, Marchant feels Shoreditch's creative reputation inspires and reflects the company's ethos. He takes care of marketing and business development, while his co-founders take care of the leisure and corporate side of the business respectively.

8.45am The day officially begins with the weekly meeting with Clemmie, who heads up the in-house PR department. They meet at the local Diner, favoured for its unlimited coffee refills.

Marchant meets with teams individually, and today's schedule has a marketing focus. Over coffee, Clemmie updates him on PR progress. Several press trips ideas are discussed, including motorbike safaris, volcano surfing and black-water rafting, tying in with the agency's strategy to run adventurous press trips.

10am Back to the office - now alive with some of his 23 staff - to meet with marketing manager Sarah to discuss plans for collaboration with a leading fashion magazine. Then, a partnership with Classic Car Club has led to plans for a three-day experience-based drive through Austria and Germany - "the opposite of the Gumball" - so PR opportunities, and responsible travel issues are considered.

Marchant is keen on self-generated content, writing for publications to build trust in the brand so "people see we know what we're talking about." This includes a partnership with quarterly Exit, for which he writes a column.

The company holds creative brainstorming sessions every six weeks. "In a small company it's very important," he says. "To isolate people is useless when you've got a group of creative thinkers."

11am Intern Sasha presents practical ideas on improving the office space - suggestions range from bespoke maps to hot pink DJ decks and a 'high five' wall celebrating staff achievements.

11.30am Monthly meeting with Clemmie and Lucy, BT's account director at Massey PR, to discuss upcoming marketing campaigns. Recent coverage includes a Financial Times article on Syria which gave rise to "a brilliant amount of enquiries", and the team consider possibilities for further publicity.

They also review BT's launch in the USA earlier this year. Marchant is pleased, but admits: "It is sod's law, when you make the move the dollar drops to an all-time low. Enquiries are gradually increasing, though."

BT's client reward programme, The Vine, includes the complimentary Death of a Slideshow service, where clients' 15 favourite photos are turned into photo books, and returned to them with a pack of lager. The team consider ways to publicise this, including offering the service to selected journalists.

The main summer marketing push comes under the working title of The Amazing Face Race. The online viral campaign invites consumers to upload interesting face portraits on the website and plenty of promotional PR activity is planned for the summer.

The imminent launch of Black Tomato TV is also discussed, with plans to include animation on the website.

They also discuss That Sweet Trip, a new section on the BT website dedicated to inspiring honeymoon ideas.

Afternoon After a brief lunch of checking emails, Marchant is happy to catch up with Luxury Travel and pose for photos. He explains: "We are getting to the end of a lot of initiatives, so we're looking at the PR. On other days, all the directors will be here looking at reports, on web traffic, for example."

Marchant and Merrett met when studying geography at Newcastle University 10 years ago. A shared passion for travel helped form a lasting friendship, along with plans to go into business together. Lacking commercial experience, Marchant worked in Moscow as an analyst for six months after university to fund further trips, before travelling round S America, New Zealand and Australia, where they met Smith. Having found another "kindred spirit", the three returned to work in the UK, holding monthly meetings to discuss their business ideas. Over four years, the idea for BT took shape as the trio ran their idea past anyone who cared to provide feedback.

"The aim is for people to think of us as cutting edge, an innovative company who push the boundaries of how people travel," Marchant says. Additional goals include plans to increase the revenue by at least 50% this year. Success will also be judged by increased passenger numbers, client perception of quality and loyalty programme redemptions.

"We are at the point now where we can use data meaningfully," he says. "When you start a small business, so much is based on a hunch. It has been a learning curve."

MY FAVOURITE

Hotel: Little Ongava, Namibia.

Destination: Moscow or Namibia.

Transport: Great train journeys, such as the Trans-Siberian from Moscow to Beijing.

Type of holiday: Authentic - where you're seeing the soul of a place.

Career high to date: Winning the Observer and Guardian Best Travel Website award 2006, '07.

Top tip: To get a feel for somewhere, find out where local live music is.

Luxury is: Rare, unique - and not necessarily the most expensive.

TOM MARCHANT'S THOUGHTS ON ...

Staff recruitment: "When we started it took an age to find someone for a post. We saw lots of people who weren't right, so we talked to friends and former colleagues. If you haven't got travel experience, it's not so important - being passionate about travel, a quick learner and having an interesting point of view is."

Responsible travel: "We recognise clients need to be aware of opportunities. With some offset schemes you don't know where the money is going, so the best way is to humanise it." The company helps fund sustainable energy projects in the Himalayas and Madagascar.

Fam trips: "We do a mix of fam and independent trips. We have a schedule of places to visit, or revisit, as many are changing so fast, like Moscow. We would not sell somewhere if we hadn't been there - reputation is everything. '

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